Wekande Walauwa

Wekande Walauwa (Mansion by the Lake) (වෑකන්ද වලව්ව) is a 2002 award-winning Sinhalese language drama film directed by Lester James Peries and co-produced by Asoka Perera and Chandran Rutnam. It stars Malini Fonseka, Vasanthi Chathurani and Sanath Gunathilake in lead roles along with Paboda Sandeepani and Ravindra Randeniya. Music composed by Pradeep Ratnayake. It is the 1020th Sri Lankan film in the Sinhala cinema.

Story follows the lives of wealthy people in Sri Lanka. As per the film director the story is inspired by Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard adapted to a Sri Lankan family context. It was screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. The film was the country's first ever submission for the Academy Awards and received the Golden felini award from UNESCO.

The film was shot at Bandaragama, Piliyandala and Panadura areas. The release of the film delayed due to the April 2 Parliament election.

Cast

 * Malini Fonseka as Mrs.Sujata Rajasuriya
 * Ravindra Randeniya as Lucas
 * Vasanthi Chathurani as Sita
 * Sanath Gunathilake as Gunapala
 * Paboda Sandeepani as Aruni
 * Iranganie Serasinghe as Aunt Catherine
 * Lucky Dias as The lawyer Muthugoda
 * Elson Divithurugama as Gabriel
 * Senaka Wijesinghe as Student Activist
 * Ranjith Rubasinghe as Student Activist
 * Chitra Warakagoda

Academy Awards Submission
Wekande Walauwa was Sri Lanka's first ever submission for the Academy Awards which was held in 2003 under the category of 'Award for Best Foreign Language Film' by a Sri Lankan Director. The film was screened at the grand finale of the Asian Film Festival in Mumbai, India on August 10, 2002.